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THE STRANGER'S GUIDE 

TO 

Hfif -YORK CITY ^CRYSTAL PALACE. 

Tins volume is handsomely illustrated, stereotyped, and printed 
upon fine paper, and containing 148 pages of reading matter. 

It vill form a complete Guide to jS t ew-Tork City and Vicinity 
with full instructions to enable the stranger to find all places and 
objects of especial interest; also many beautiful Vie^s of Public 
Buildings, with a 

MAP OP THE CITY OF NEW- YORK, ETC. 

It will also embrace a full history and exact description of the 
Crystal Palace, its different apartments, and various kinds of good- 
and articles on exhibition, having been got up under the S{ „ 
and express approbation of the Board of Directors. 

In short, it is an indispensable companion to the stranger who 
visits New-York the present season, and indeed of all who desire 
minute information concerning the present position and doings in 
the Metropolis. 

% fisl] of Scrap: firketr jjy j tt banana 
. farts of %($lorlo. 

noons which may be tbund a Variety of Matter, from the Magnificent to the 
Incomprehensible ; including a bit of 

FUN, CUKIOUS FACTS, BOUGH-HEWN HITS, 

Eccentricities, Interesting Historical Events, 

and Moral Sketches. 

SUITED TO ALL TASTES AND APPETITES, AND WARRANTED 
TO BE DIGESTIBLE. 



COMPILED BY M. LAFAYETTE BYRN, M. D., 

AUTHOR OF "DETECTION OF FRAUD, AND PROTECTION OF HEALTH 
' THE ARKANSAS DOCTOR," ETC., ETC. J EDITOR AND COMPILER 

of "the artist's and tradesman's COMPANION," 

" REMINISCENCES OF HISTORY." ETC., ETC 



THE MISSION OE INTELLECT; 



A POEM, 



DELIVERED AT METROPOLITAN HALL, NEW-YORK, DEC. 20, 1855 



J 

BY AUGUSTINE PUGANNE. 



4/ 




NEW YORK: 

L A R K I N , STEARNS, & CO 
35 6 BROADWAY. 






Entered according to Act of Congress iu the year 1853, by 

AUGUSTINE DUGANNE, 

In the Clerk's office of the District Court of the Eastern District of New-York 



JJofiit &. (Krag, 

PRINTER AND STEREOTYPER, 
95 & 97 Cliff, cor. Frankfort st 



TO THOSE WHO LABOR 

INTELLECTUALLY AND MORALL1 

THIS POEM IS 
LOVINGLY INSCRIBED BY 



THE AUTHOR 



Cjje Utisaion of Jittdlut 



FART FIRST 



"THE VISION. 



I was a student in the schools of earth — 

I was a wrestler in the strife for gain — 

Until a Voice, which was not of myself, 

Out-led my soul from life. My refluent thought, 

Upon the electric wires of wondrous sleep, 

Had compassed the immeasurable Past, 

And journeyed with the Ages ! I had trod 

The ice-tesselated temples whose dread shrines 

Are the upthrown vitals of extinct volcanoes ; 

Whose columns are gnarled clouds, — whose awful arch 

Is the indrawn chest of storms — whose architraves 



6 THE MISSION OF INTELLECT. 

Are the garnered winds — whose visionless capitals 
Are the footstools of that unseen deity 
Whom men call Science ' - 

And my soul had sunk — 
Even from those wildering deserts it had sunk, 
Sounding a measureless deepness, through the mazo 
Of whirlpools that engulf the Northern seas, 
Down to the interminable caves of Ocean ! 
I trod the unfathomed waters, — where the forms 
Of vasty snakes like islands lie entombed — 
I passed the innumerable host of Dead, 
Marshaled like armies, where attraction wanes, 
And bodies have no weight. I climbed the hills 
Of long-forgotten treasures — heaps of gold, 
And piles of gorgeous merchandry, that years 
And ages have collected, in the marts 
Of that dead empire Ocean — whence again 
No caravan shall bear them — whence not one 
Of all the uncounted fleets that in the ports 
Of sunless silence ride in endless lines, 
Shall voyage forth — beneath the flag of Mammon. 



THE -VISION. 

Cold Science — throned upon her awful snows ! 

x\nd Mammon — reigning o'er the withered wrecks 

Of a dead ocean ! — these my soul surveyed, 

Like one who lifts the mantle of his fate, 

And seeth perdition. — These had been my quest ! 

Science I wooed — to freeze in her embrace ; 

And Mammon conquered — to be Mammon's slave. 

Too late I learned it, as in agony 

My spirit moaned aloud. — " Behold !" I cried — 

u The Heritage of Science cannot bless — 

The Power of Mammon cannot save mankind ! 

Tell me, angel of my dreams ! reveal 

The glorious talisman which shall redeem 

Humanity from its curse !" 

Once more the Voice of Truth 
Went out before me, as a wind, — 
And drew my weeping soul ! Night came and went, 
And days fled swiftly on the rolling wheels 
Of golden suns ; and seasons, like swift steeds, 
Burdened with wealth, and driven by ancient Time, 
Rushed past my sight, and vanished. On, and on — 



8 THE MISSION OF INTELLECT. 

My soul moved, trembling, through the deeps of space 

Cherubim brushed it with their snowy wings, 

And radiant angels of the mercy seat 

Breathed Eden's odors, as they earthward passed, 

Drying my tears with their celestial smiles. 

On, through the deeps of space — a million worlds, 

Dazzling in hazy glory, crossed my sight ; 

Myriads of stars stretched gleaming from my gaze, 

And countless suns in bright effulgence burned. 

Then fell my soul into a wildering trance 
Of mystic silence. Solitude seemed bowed 
By the awful weight of an eternal hush : 
There was no atmosphere — no pulse, to thrill 
With the faintest whisper : — vision was no more, 
For light was absent. All was darksome void, 
Where matter and its attributes were not — 
Where Chaos yet was viewless ! — 

And there pressed 
A thought upon my brain, as if a weight 



THE VISION 



Of madness were approaching- — and I cried. 
That this was Death — and that there was no God ! 



Then answered me the Voice of Truth : " Behold ! 
Thus is Life dead — thus Godless is the world — 
When Intellect bows down at Mammon's feet." 

Then suddenly, as with electric flame, 

A light fell all around me, and a sound, 

As of a thousand pinions, rocked my soul ! 

The immensity of visible space revealed 

Itself before me, — and the stars fled back, 

And systems melted into mist — and suns dissolved 

In ambient radiance, — until space — all space 

Was peopled T>y my soul alone ! — 

My vision swept the untenanted universe, 

And from the shadows of Infinity 

I heard the whisper of the Uncreate, 

And bowed my listening spirit. Then arose — 

Slowly, and like a phantom shape, from out 
1* 



10 THE MISSION OF INTELLECT. 

The invisible Beyond, a shadowy globe ; — 

And my soul knew it was — the Earth ! 

An atmosphere of congelated tears 

Covered her brow as with a hoary frost, 

And the deep stirred around her — as with sighs . 

Once more the awful accents of that Voice 

Shook my hushed heart. " Now may'st thou mark the earth ! 

And, from the Universe of thy Intellect, 

Behold Humanity even as it is !" 

Then, with a measureless reach, as if one blind 
Should strain for sight, my soul looked trembling down, 
And saw where, stretched athwart the boreal snows 
An old man, tossed with a tempestuous grief, 
Lay writhing — while above, in midway light, 
Hose, like a sorrowing god before mine eyes, 
The Angel of the Wretched. He was crowned 
With thorns that gleamed amid the light like gems ; 
His brow was rigid, as with conquered grief, 
And his bright eyes glittered with unwept tears ! 



THE VISION. 11 

I trembled as his sorrowing glance met mine, 
And my soul bowed like Mary at the tomb, 
When the angel talked with her. 

And then I knew, 
That the old man. wrestling with his mighty grief, 
Like Jacob vithihe Evangel of the Lord, 
Was the great mass of crushed Humanity — 
The bound Prometheus of a suffering world — 
Chained to the earth with shackles, which the kings 
And great ones of all time have forged from swords 
And spears, in the dread furnace of red War — 
Whose fires are fanned by mortals' dying breaths, 
And fed by slavery's hecatombs of lives ! 

Then, like the waters of the deep, updrawn 

By the pale moon, my tears gushed thickly forth 

Beneath the angel's glance, and, stretching out 

Mine arms, the while my bosom heaved and tossed 

Like a stirred sea, — I lifted up my voice, 

As Samuel 'mid the Holies : " Lord ! here am I- 

Speak : for thy servant heareth !" 



12 THE M I S 8 10 N 01 INTELLECT. 

And that Voice 
Which had out-led ine from the world, and showed 
The desert throne of Science, and the dead, 
Unsentient realm of Mammon, — now spake low, 
In a strange whisper, as if all the waves 
Of space were breathing lips ; and the wide sound, 
Circling infinitude with a subtile reach, 
Thrilled through my swaying soul — " Arise, and work 
While the day lasteth — for, behold ! the Night 
Cometh, when no man worketh." 

Lo ! that Voice 
Troubled the waters of mine unbelief, 
And healed mine ignorance ! — " Behold !" I cried — 
" Behold Humanity is crushed to earth — 
Mankind is cursed through toil." Then answered me 
A sound, as of the tread of marching orbs, 
Rending the heavens ! — and it said, once more, 
" Arise, and work !" I trembled, and obeyed. 
Even from those infinite heights I sank to Earth, 
And stood beside Humanity ! 



APOSTROPHE 



0, Earth ! beautiful and wondrous earth ! 

Jewelled with souls, and warm with generous hearts ! 
The morning stars sang gladly at thy birth; 
And all God's sons, through Heaven's unmeasured girth, 

Shouted with joy ! Lo ! when thy life departs, 
All things created shall surcease, and thou. — 
Girt with great Nature's wrecks — shalt proudly bow, 
And with the crumbling Universe bedeck thy dying brow 

ii. 
bounteous Earth ! Thy fresh and teeming breast 

Hath nourishment for all the tribes of men ! 
God is still with thee, and thy womb is blest ! 
Still with abundant good thou travailest ! 

And thy dead Ages fructify again, 
With a new increase ! Yet, Earth ! behold — 
Millions are perishing, with pangs untold ! 
Lo ! thy poor children faint, Earth, for bread reluctant 
doled ! 



14 THE MISSION OF INTELLECT. 

III. 

Mysterious Earth ! Thou hast within thy deeps 
The boundless stores of science ! The immense 

Arcanum of all glorious knowledge sleeps 

Within thine arms, and awful Nature keeps 
Watch o'er the treasuries of Omnipotence ! 

mother Earth ! why are thy golden plains 

Made fields of torture, and thine iron veins 

Wrought for unholy tyrannies, and forged to galling ohains ! 



PI LQRIMAQE. 
I. 

Thus communed I, as in the lonely night 

I wandered from the city's sights and sounds — 
Where life's exuberant mirth, in endless rounds, 

Was racing with the hours — where false delight, 
And hollow joy, and folly without bounds, 
And reckless riot which the soul astounds, 

Were but the usual objects of my sight, 

And grown so thick with life as seldom to affright. 



PILGRIMAGE. 15 

II. 

I left behind the crowded thoroughfares, 

Where streams of laughing folly dashed along ! 

I passed the theatres, where sin and song 
Were mingled — turned me from the brilliant squares — 

And reached the darksome avenues, among 

The bleak abodes of poverty and wrong ; 
Where wretched outcasts crouch within their lairs, 
And God's fair workmanship a demon's impressbears ! 

in. 
And, as with hurried feet I nearer drew 

To narrow streets, where Wo and Shame and Want 

Were task-masters, and Hunger, grim and gaunt, 
Wolf-like clutched human throats, and overthrew 

The souls of men, — there came, in garment scant, 

A woman to my side, whose gait, aslant, 
Brought piteously her grievous sin to view — 
That most unhappy sin which all the good must rue ! 

IV. 

With tangled hair, and bloodshot, stormy eyes, 
And hands clutched nervously across her breast, 



16 THE MISSION OF INTELLECT. 

As to her heart some treasure she had prest — 
With swinging motion, and strange, gasping cries, 
As if of some lost thing she was in quest — 
Like a wild bird, when foes have robbed its nest — 
This woman came to me, and with low sighs 
Sank prostrate at my feet, and gasped like one who dies. 

v. 
And over her I bent, and raised her brow 

To the moonlight which fell o'er us, and beheld 

How all its blood was from her face dispelled ; 
And how the furrows deep which sorrows plough, 

Were graven on cheek and brow in many a weld ; 

But Grief, and not Intemperance, had quelled 
Her hapless brain, and she, in truth, was now 
A maniac woman, doomed to gibber and to mow. 

VI. 

And this poor being fixed on me the glare 

Of her glassed eyes, while on her lips the froth 
Of a wild spasm gathered — and, as loth 

Even in her madness stranger looks to bear, 
Struggled within my grasp, and waxing wroth, 



PILGRIMAGE. 17 

Rent with her nervous hand the tattered cloth 
That hid, but shielded not her breast, and there — 
Slumbering in peace, I saw — an infant wondrous fair ! 

VII. 

There is nought holier than an infant's sleep ! 
For the sanctification of its innocence 
Enshrines its soul — a shelter and defence ; 

Like a crystal sea, unfathomably deep, 

That guards some blessed island, and prevents 
The unhallowed entrance of all earthly sense : 

Or like the viewless cherubim that keep 

Watch over Eden's gates, lest sin within should creep. 

VIII. 

And cherubim there are — though visionless — 
That fold the infant with their heavenly wings, 
And soothe its slumber with, soft whisperings 

Of the eternal Love and Holiness 

Of Grod ! — 0, radiant, beautiful things 
Glimpses of glory ! bright imaginings 

Of Eden ! must those be, which oft impress 

An infant's lips with smiles whose meaning. none may guess. 



18 THE MISSION OF INTELLECT. 

IX. 

And this fair Child, which now in slumber lay 
Upon its mother's bosom, like a rose 
That on a lightning-blasted cedar grows ; 

This child — which seemed a seraphic Estray 
From Heaven — woke not from its soft repose, 
Though its frame shook with the convulsing throes 

That rent the mother, as, with maniac sway, 

She struggled to her feet, and flung my grasp away. 

x. 

Like an angel slept the infant, while below 

Its roseate cheek throbbed that wild woman's heart, 
As from its seat it would in madness start ; 

Even as fair Innocence on the breast of Wo 
Calmly reclines, with life and soul apart 
From all the raging thoughts that fiercely dart 

Their arrowy flames beneath it, to and fro ! — 

The child slept on, nor guilt, nor madness could it know 

XI. 

But a whisper in my heart, that seemed to plead 
For the mad woman's babe, forbade my feet 
To turn, till, haply, I might soothe the heat 



PILGRIMAGE. 19 

Of its wild mother's passion, and outlead 

The frenzy from her mind, that throbbed and beat 
Like smothered flame, within the burning seat 
Of her poor brain ; — for madness, like a reed, 
May be swayed as ye will — if ye its humors heed. 

XII. 

So I no longer wrestled with the rage 

That swelled her heart — but fixed on her my gaze ; 

Like one who tenderly some grief surveys, 
Which he with gentle act would fain assuage ; 

And as she marked, with wonder scarce concealed, 

The unusual pity which my looks revealed — 
Pity that words in vain might strive to speak — 
I bent once more my head — and kissed her baby's cheek 

XIII. 

Behold ! at once that darksome street grew bright 
With golden beams, whose lustre pure and mild 
Fell o'er the mother's form, and wrapped the child ! 

I turned — and, clad in robes of clustering light, 
Dazzling as those in heavenly courts that beam, 
I saw the radiant Angel of my Dream • 



20 THE MISSION OF INTELLECT. 

And heard the Voice — but now with sweeter sound 
" Intellect ! thou hast thy Mission found ! 



ORDINATION. 



" G-o forth, and find amid the world "thy field : 
And such as these shall teach thee how to live ! 
Go forth, and mark the sorrows of thy race, 
And soothe the madness of their ignorance ! 
Go forth, and preach that earth is cursed by toil, 
Because that toil is linked with want and wo ! 
Be this thy mission — to exalt the doom, 
By patient virtue and by watchful love ! 
Be thine to teach that man is kin to man ! — 
That stars may glimmer through the darkest night, 
And flowerets bloom amid the rankest weeds ; 
That in G-od's plan there is no evil thing 
Which may not yet take hold on purity !" 

Silent the Voice : but 1, with quivering lips, 
Implored the Angel's name. — Then answered mo 



ORDINATION. 21 

Those flutelike tones, o'crswaying all my heart, 

And said, " Behold — I am thy Comforter ! 

By me the rocky fountains of hard hearts 

Are touched, as with the prophet's wand, and gush 

In holiest streams ; by me the stone of grief 

Is rolled from off the mourner's sepulchre, 

And Christ ariseth 'mid its gloom ; by me 

Are souls made free from error's leprosy, 

As Naaman in Jordan ; at my touch 

The bolts and shackles of misfortune's prison 

Fall, as fell Peter's, when the angel came ! 

I am the Calmer of life's raging waves ! 

To me men cry, when sinking — Help ! we perish ! 

Blessed are they who have my power confessed — 

And they who love me — they are truly blest !" 

Thy name ! I cried — as bent my trembling knee — 
Thy Name ! The Angel answered, " Charity !" 

The vision passed — but I remained enwrapt, 

Like him of Tarsus, when the awful light 

Shone round about him. But my soul had learned 



22 THE MISSION OF INTELLECT. 

Its mission among mankind, and it burned 
To speak the exalted truth to kindred mind — 
That Intellect is steward for mankind — 
That mental life is more than mental dreaming, 
That earth is still no sham — and heaven no seeming 
That untaught souls will find an untrue God : 
For ignorance will worship still its clod ! 
That sacred fire may flame on various shrines : 
For Love is bound by no sectarian lines ! 



PART SECOND. 



EXORDIUM, 



I. 

Men of mind ! 0, men of mind ! 
Ye who wield the mighty Pen, 
Scanning souls with angel-ken ! — 

Ye who mould our human-kind 
In the matrix of your thought, — 
Why have ye for ages wrought 
Moral miracle and wonder, 
Still asunder — still asunder ? 
n. 

Men of mind ! 0, men of mind ! 
Could the electric fire of Soul 
Fuse ye in one glowing whole, — 

Could the immortal flame, enshrined 
In each stranger heart and brain, 
Flash from one tremendous fane, — 
Then might all the world awaken — 
Then might Earth with joy be shaken ! 



24 THE MISSION OF INTELLECT 



Men of mind ! 0, men of mind ! 
Ye are stewards of your lord — 
Ye are treasurers of his word ! 

Whatsoe'er on earth ye bind, 

Lo ! it shall be bound in heaven ! 
What by you on earth is riven, 
Shall in heaven be loosed and broken - 
Lo ! the Eternal Voice hath spoken ! 



Men of mind ! 0, men of mind ! 
Flash your million souls in one — 
Let the stars become the sun ! 

Be ye as your God designed ! 

Then shall Error withering fall — '• 
Then shall perish Wrong and Thrall ! 
Then shall Freedom's Anthem rise — 
Earth's eternal Sacrifice ! 



INVOCATION. 



Hearts of love and souls of daring, in the world's high field 
of action — 

Ye who cherish God's commandments, bending not to rank 
or faction : 

Ye whose lives in slothful pleasure never sink nor idly stag- 
nate, 

Ye who wield the scales of Justice, weighing peasant-man 
with magnate, — 

Lo ! the Voice of Benediction falls upon you from on High : 

Ye are chosen — ye are missioned — ye are watched by 
Heaven's Eye ! 



Ye have voices, thoughts and feelings — they were given by 

God to bless you : 
Pour them forth, till Wrong shall hear ycni — till it fear 

you, and redress you ! 
Ye have friends*in all God's servants — friends in Heaven, 

with power supernal — 



2 ) THE MISSION OF INTELLECT. 

Friends m all who worship justice, all who fear the great 

Eternal : 
Raise your voices from the Forum — challenge Wrong upon 

its throne — 
Let your avalanchine warnings sweep the earth from zone 

to zone ! 

hi. 

Speak ye boldly ! pause not — fear not ! Grod is reigning 
still above you : 

Pour the truth, 'like light, o'er mankind, if they hate or if 
they love you ! 

Like the Swiss, like Arnold Winkelried — his valorous 
watchword crying — 

Ye may " make a path for liberty !" — though in it ye lie 
dying ! 

Like brave Decius, white-robed warrior — priest and vic- 
tim — ride ye on : 

Matters it not if ye shall perish, so the glorious Cause be 
won ! 



INVOCATION. 27 

IV. 

Though ye bleed as John the Baptist — though ye suffer as 

Saint Stephen — 
Pause not ! fear not ! hurl your warnings o'er the earth like 

gleaming levin ! 
Lo ! your fall shall raise up witnesses, your death shall 

prove your mission, 
And your murderers will bedew your dust with tears of sad 

contrition : 
Cry aloud amid life's desert — 'mid the wilder uess of 

earth — 
And " prepare the way !" like him who tirst announced the 

Saviour's birth ! 



Trust in Heaven, though ye be lowly ! weak and lowly 

were those preachers, 
Who, from fishermen of Galilee, became Creation's teachers: 
Pause ye not, though musty learning hath not doled its 

scanty morsels — 
For the flaming tongues of knowledge filled with fire the 

twelve apostles J 



2b THE MISSION V INTELLECT 

Truth will shame the crafty schoolmen — till the hoary 

scribes with awe — 
Like the youthful Christ, expounding at Jerusalem the law ! 

VI. 

Intellect hath Voice forever ! Let that Voice be firm, 
unquavering — 

As the dauntless Three of Israel, in the furnace still un- 
wavering — 

Lift your prayers like ancient Daniel — praising God amid 
the lions — 

Smite the priests of cruel Dagons — crush the shrines of 
gilded Dians — 

Preach ye now like him of Tarsus — as the hill of Mars he 
trod : 

Words of virtues long forgotten — tidings of the Unknown 
God ! — 

VII. 

Speak ye boldly ! from your temple-tops, Muezzin-like, give 

warning ! 
Bid your brother's eyes turn sunward — bid him hail the 

Future's morning • 



INVOCATION. 29 

Point where Truth hath reared her Kaaba — point the 

Mecca of salvation — 
Till, like Moslems at the minaret-call, shall sink in prayer 

each nation ! — 
Pause not, shrink not in your mission ! — Flash the sunlight 

of your thought, 
Like the blaze of God's first mandate, that revealed what 

he had wrought ! 

VIII. 

Speak to kings, as Paul to Festus — till they own the 

truths ye teach them — 
Speak to men like Christ to Lazarus — till the breath of 

life shall reach them ! 
Though ye lie in chains, like Peter — angel hands shall 

ope your prison : 
Though ye die, as died the Prophets — trust ye still your 

prayers have risen ! 
Shrink not — pause not in your Mission ! — ye must lead 

the Future's van : 
For Jehovah gives to Intellect the Stewardship of Man ! 



ASPIRATION. 



I am looking from my heart through cloudy skies and 

stormy years, 
While the dim, uncertain Present vails me in a mist of tears ; 
And a low, mysterious murmuring my sinking spirit hears : 

Like the sad and solemn shivering of the trembling forest 

leaves, 
When the muttered breath of thunder through the rocking 

darkness heaves, 
Ere the bolt of fiery levin 'mid the crashing heaven cleaves. 

And a mighty Thought, like sultriness, o'ersways me, as a 

wing — 
Even as blended wings of cherubim, while fearfully I sing, 
And most fearfully, like Samuel, to the altar foot I cling ; 



To the foot of that great darkness, lifting high its awful 
head — 



ASPIRATION. 31 

While the clouds, in rolling billows, over its bosom widely 

spread — 
Like the darkness round the Stygian shores — the darkness 

of the Dead. 

At the foot of this dread altar kneel I now with clasped 

hands, 
And my bosom smites the Darkness, as a billow beats the 

sands — 
When the Ocean, all behind it, drives it madly on the 

strands. 

Thus the Ocean of my longings forces on my surging heart — 
Till the Darkness seems to crumble — crumble heavily apart, 
And beyond it — as from Chaos — golden paradises start. 

Lo ! the mountainous Thought falls from me — falls from 

off my heaving soul — 
As if Earth from Titan Atlas should with silent motion roll : 
And, behold ! it belts the heavens, in a wondrous, flaming 

scroll, — 



32 



THE MISSION OF INTELLECT 



As if all the hurrying thunderbolts, in viewless fingers held, 
Whilst tttey burned upon the azure, were to mortal language 

quelled — 
Straightway now all human Error from my spirit is dis- 
pelled ! 

And I know that towering Altar is Jehovah's Throne on 

Earth — 
And the billowy clouds around it hide the Future's mighty 

birth — 
This I read amid the flaming Thought, that spans the 

heavens' girth. 



Lo ! that Thought is man's Kedemption — man's enfran- 
chisement from wrong — 

When the Earth to all God's children shall in brotherhood 
belong — 

And the weak shall rest securely on the bosom of the 
strong. 



ASPIRATION. 33 

Like an endless fire, consumeless, burns that Thought be- 
fore mine eyes : 
And my soul's electric flashes would eternally uprise — 
Rise and mingle with the Prophecy that belts the 
Future's skies ! 



ISSMMT1S1 



The true principle of American book publishing, embodying 
an idea of the peculiar wants of our reading community, and the 
proper method of responding to such want's, is suggested in the 
brief essay with which the undersigned have deemed it fitting to 
preface their announcement to the public. To carry out to its 
full extent all that is practical and beneficial in a course such as 
therein indicated, is the design and intention of the " Union Book 
Association," which, as its name may intimate, will aim at cater- 
ing for American readers with spirit and material worthy of our 
country ; providing for the constantly developed literary tastes 
of the people such books as will be truly valuable, useful, and 
interesting. We have now in press, and ready for issue, several 
works prepared especially with reference to our main design, that 
of aiding in the creation of an American standard of literature, 
to a few of which we call the attention of the public. 

In classifying the works designed to be issued from time to time 
by the Union Book Association, we may use three comprehensive 
terms — the useful, the agreeable, and the indispensable. The 
first will comprise such books as are fitted to occupy a wide field 
of practical good, in meeting the real wants of the community 
in all departments of knowledge. The second, employing such 
material as possesses a charm for refined and cultivated readers, 
will be composed mainly of classic selections in the walks of 
poetry and general belles lettres, issued in elegant style, and suited 
to obtain a place in the libraries of educated gentlemen, as well 
as the boudoir of every lady of taste. For this class, the very 
gems of literature will be sought, and such only chosen as are 
intrinsically stamped with the seal of excellence. Under our 
third classification, it is designed to furnish books appropriate to 
every sphere of life, embodying matter of the highest practical 
importance to the merchant, manufacturer, artisan, agriculturist, 
and professional man, in their peculiar position, and their rela- 
tions to society at large. The utmost care and discrimination 
will be exercised in the preparation of every work issued froiu 
our press. 



SUMMER READING. 

In our department of the agreeable, we shall issue immediately 
a series of brochure publications, which may be designated as 
Boudoir Books, as they are just such companions as every lady 
would desire, wherewith to wile a quiet hour at a watering-place 
or in a country ramble. 

•' 'Tis heaven to loll upon a couch," says Gray, 
And read new novels through a rainy day ;" 

but novels are now pretty nearly discarded for more elevated 
reading, and the lady or gentleman of elegant leisure now loves 
to pause over the beautiful imagery and inspired words of genius 
in the loftier regions of thought. To supply an obvious want in 
this connection, by the issue of what may be termed ' ; hand-books 
of belles-lettres," is our design in the preparation of Summer 
Reading ; and we hope to present such little brochures as will be 
welcomed by all readers of taste and discrimination. 

A SERIES OF BOUDOIR BOOKS. 

No. I. THE MISSION OF INTELLECT. 

BY AUGUSTINE DUGANNE. 



A NEW 

(fitter nf tjjt %nM Itafea. 

BY RICHARD S. FISHER, M. D., 

Author of the "Book of the World," " Gazetteer of Maryland," and other highly 
approved Statistical Works. 

This volume has been compiled with great care, from the most 
reliable data, and it is confidently believed will give universal 
satisfaction. The reputation of Mr. Fisher, as an accurate col- 
lator and authentic statist, is a guaranty of the importance of 
this Gazetteer. 



THE COMPLETE WRITINGS OF 

THOMAS JEFFERSON, 

THIRD PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. 

Tins work will be issued in a style worthy of the great statesman 
whose political Lfe it chronicles, and it ought to find a place in the 
library of every young American. The memories of our first 
patriots should be, like the lares of the ancient Romans, ever pres- 
ent at our firesides ; and there cannot be a better initiative book 
for the youthful republican than the political writings of the author 
of the "Declaration of Independence." 



ILLUSTRATED EDITION OF 

THE YOUNG LADIES' FRIEND. 

This is a work of uncommon literary excellence, as well as great 
practical utility. It will be the very book for a gift at all seasons 
from parents to daughters, and from friend to friend. 

other important and valuable works will be duly announced 



All the publications of the UNION BOOK ASSOCIATIOIS 
will be issued and sold, by the Company and its local Agents, by 
Subscription only. This step is the result of long consideration 
and is -adopted from a conviction that, by the establishment of 
proper agencies, calculated to command the confidence of the com- 
munity, our books can be made more accessible to Societies and 
individuals in all parts of the country, and that we can be thus 
enabled to give more complete satisfaction to those who desire 
our publications as soon as issued. Our prices will be alway.- 
uniform in every town or city where an Agency is located ; ana 1 
these will be the lowest rates at which such works as we shall 
issue can be supplied by any publisher. Subscribers at the most 
distant points of the country will receive the books immediately 
on publication, with no increase of price for the distance ; a great 
desideratum to readers, who are often forced to pay much more. 




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